copyright

English

Etymology

From copy +‎ right.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑpiˌɹaɪt/
• (RP) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒpiˌɹaɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: copywrite
• Hyphenation: copy‧right
• Rhymes: -aɪt

Noun

copyright (usually uncountable, plural copyrights)

1. (uncountable) The right by law to be the entity which determines who may publish, copy and distribute a piece of writing, music, picture or other work of authorship.

   Copyright is a separate legal area from trademarks.

2. (countable) Such an exclusive right as it pertains to one or more specific works.

   The artist lost the copyrights to her songs when she signed the contract.

   The images are still copyright of the original artist.

   • 2005, Gerard M Stegmaier, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: 2005 supplement:

     For me personally, the copyrights and "copywrongs," as I have called them, simply boil down to either one or two things, and that is it's either an act of distribution or it is an act of consumption.

   • 2012 January 18, Bill Mears, “Justices allow copyrights on foreign works”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The 1994 law in question was designed to put the United States in compliance with global treaties on intellectual property– the Berne Convention and the so-called Uruguay Round. The federal legislation created copyrights to foreign works that had not previously been covered.

3. (uncountable, informal, nonstandard) A violation of copyright law; copyright infringement.

   no copyright intended

   • 2019 October 23, Christine Fisher, “House passes controversial copyright bill that could be abused by trolls”, in Engadget‎^[2]:

     Anyone accused of copyright would have sixty days to opt-out of the Copyright Claims Board process, in which case the plaintiff would have to seek legal action in court.

Derived terms

• ad interim copyright
• anticopyright
• copyfighter
• copyfree
• copyleft
• copyreich
• copyrightability
• copyrighter
• copyright laundering
• copyrightless
• copyright symbol
• copyright trap
• copyright troll
• copystrike
• poor man's copyright
• recopyright
• uncopyrightability

Translations

right to publish

• Albanian: e drejtë e autorit f
• Arabic: حُقُوق النَّشْر pl (ḥuqūq an-našr)
• Armenian: հեղինակային իրավունք (hy) (heġinakayin iravunkʻ)
• Azerbaijani: müəllif hüququ
• Belarusian: а́ўтарскае пра́ва n (áŭtarskaje práva)
• Bulgarian: а́вторско пра́во n (ávtorsko právo)
• Burmese: မူပိုင် (my) (mupuing), မူပိုင်ခွင့် (mupuinghkwang.)
• Catalan: drets d'autor m pl
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 版權 / 版权 (baan² kyun⁴)

  Hokkien: 版權 / 版权 (zh-min-nan) (pán-kôan)

  Mandarin: 版權 / 版权 (zh) (bǎnquán)

• Cornish: gwir-brintya m, gwirbryntyans m, gwir-pryntya m
• Czech: autorské právo n, copyright (cs) m
• Danish: ophavsret c
• Dutch: auteursrecht (nl) n
• Esperanto: aŭtora rajto, aŭtororajto, kopirajto (eo)
• Estonian: autoriõigus
• Finnish: tekijänoikeus (fi), copyright (fi)
• French: (right always owned by the author) droit d’auteur (fr) m, (right attached to the work) copyright (fr) m
• Georgian: საავტორო უფლებები (saavṭoro uplebebi)
• German: Urheberrecht (de) n
• Greek: δικαιώματα δημιουργού n pl (dikaiómata dimiourgoú), πνευματικά δικαιώματα (el) n pl (pnevmatiká dikaiómata)
• Hausa: hakkin-mallaka (ha)
• Hindi: कॉपीराइट m (kŏpīrāiṭ), स्वत्वाधिकार m (svatvādhikār), प्रकाशनाधिकार m (prakāśanādhikār), प्रतिलिप्यधिकार m (pratilipyadhikār)
• Hungarian: szerzői jog (hu)
• Icelandic: höfundarréttur
• Ido: autoryuro
• Indonesian: hak cipta (id)
• Irish: cóipcheart m
• Italian: copyright (it) m, diritto d'autore (it) m
• Japanese: 版権 (ja) (はんけん, hanken), 著作権 (ja) (ちょさくけん, chosakuken)
• Kazakh: авторлық құқық (avtorlyq qūqyq)
• Korean: 저작권(著作權) (ko) (jeojakgwon)
• Kyrgyz: автордук укук (avtorduk ukuk)
• Lao: ລິຂະສິດ (lo) (li kha sit)
• Latvian: autortiesības f pl
• Lithuanian: autorinė teisė f, autorių teisė f
• Luxembourgish: Auteursrecht n
• Macedonian: а́вторско пра́во n (ávtorsko právo)
• Malay: hak cipta
• Malayalam: പകർപ്പവകാശം (ml) (pakaṟppavakāśaṁ)
• Maltese: dritt tal-awtur m
• Manx: coip-chiart m
• Maori: manatā, manatārua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: opphavsrett m

  Nynorsk: opphavsrett m

• Persian: کپی رایت (fa) (kopi-râyt), حق تکثیر (haqq-e taksir)
• Polish: prawo autorskie n
• Portuguese: direitos autorais m pl
• Romanian: drept de autor n
• Russian: а́вторское пра́во (ru) n (ávtorskoje právo)
• Scottish Gaelic: dlighe-sgrìobhaidh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ауторско право n

  Roman: autorsko pravo n

• Slovak: autorské právo n
• Slovene: avtorske pravice f pl
• Spanish: derechos de autor m pl, derecho de autor, derecho de copia
• Swahili: hakimiliki
• Swedish: copyright (sv) c, upphovsrätt (sv) c, upphovsrättsskydd n
• Tagalog: karapatang-akda, karapatang-sipi (tl)
• Tajik: ҳаққи таксир (haqq-i taksir)
• Thai: ลิขสิทธิ์ (th) (lík-kà-sìt)
• Tigrinya: መሰል ደራሲ (mäsäl därasi)
• Turkish: telif hakkı (tr)
• Ukrainian: а́вторське пра́во n (ávtorsʹke právo)
• Uzbek: mualliflik huquqi
• Vietnamese: bản quyền (vi) (版權)
• Welsh: hawlfraint f
• Yakut: ааптар бырааба (aaptar bıraaba)
• Zhuang: banjgienz

Verb

copyright (third-person singular simple present copyrights, present participle copyrighting, simple past and past participle copyrighted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To obtain or secure a copyright for some literary or other artistic work.
   • 1907, United States Congress House. Committee on Appropriations, District of Columbia Appropriations, page 253:

     Every book will be copyrighted that the publisher believes will have such a market as will justify him in going to the expense of copyrighting to prevent competition from other publishers.

   • 1993, Gyeorgos Ceres Hatonn, The Beast at Work, →ISBN, page 161:

     Further, Mr. Mullins writes FOR YOU-THE-PEOPLE, copyrighting to protect listings and to make a statement—but willingly shares his work for, after all, if it is not read then of what worth is a book?

   • 1997, Marc Davison, All Area Access: Personal Management for Unsigned Musicians, →ISBN, page 171:

     The sealed contents inside postmarked by the United States Post office will be proof enough of exactly when your work was completed. The disadvantage to this form of copyrighting is that your work is not traceable for anyone who is interested in acquiring information regarding copyright ownership.

   • 2002, Spider-Man (film)

     J. J. Jameson: The Green Goblin. You like that? Made it up myself. These weirdos all gotta have a name now. Hoffman! Call the patent office, copyright the name "Green Goblin". I want a quarter every time somebody says it.

   • 2006, Josh Becker, Bruce Campbell, The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking, →ISBN, page 55:

     When your script is completed you need to copyright it with the Library of Congress in Washington DC (you can get the forms from: Register of Copyrights, Library of Congress, Washington DC, 20559. Request form PA, or you can download them from www.loc.gov/copyright).

   • 2008, Ann Gaines, Don't Steal Copyrighted Stuff!, →ISBN:

     Everything else that is written or created is automatically copyrighted.

2. (transitive, informal, nonstandard) To flag for copyright violation, to copystrike.

   I won’t play this track, I don’t wanna get copyrighted.

Derived terms

• copyrightable

Translations

place under a copyright

• Dutch: onder auteursrecht plaatsen
• Finnish: suojata tekijänoikeudella
• French: copyrighter (fr)
• Greek: κατοχυρώνω (el) (katochyróno)
• Italian: porre sotto copyright, tutelare i diritti d'autore, tutelare i copyright
• Slovene: avtorsko zaščititi
• Spanish: registrar derechos de autor
• Swedish: upphovsrättsskydda
• Welsh: hawlfreintio

See also

• copyfight
• copyleft
• copyright infringement
• exclusive right
• copywrong

Basque

Etymology

Borrowed from English copyright.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kopirai̯t/ [ko.pi.rai̯t̪]
• Rhymes: -irai̯t, -ai̯t

Noun

copyright inan

1. copyright

Declension

Declension of copyright (inanimate, ending in consonant)

	indefinite	singular	plural
absolutive	copyright	copyright-a	copyright-ak
ergative	copyright-ek	copyright-ak	copyright-ek
dative	copyright-i	copyright-ari	copyright-ei
genitive	copyright-en	copyright-aren	copyright-en
comitative	copyright-ekin	copyright-arekin	copyright-ekin
causative	copyright-engatik	copyright-arengatik	copyright-engatik
benefactive	copyright-entzat	copyright-arentzat	copyright-entzat
instrumental	copyright-ez	copyright-az	copyright-ez
inessive	copyright-etan	copyright-ean	copyright-etan
locative	copyright-etako	copyright-eko	copyright-etako
allative	copyright-etara	copyright-era	copyright-etara
terminative	copyright-etaraino	copyright-eraino	copyright-etaraino
directive	copyright-etarantz	copyright-erantz	copyright-etarantz
destinative	copyright-etarako	copyright-erako	copyright-etarako
ablative	copyright-etatik	copyright-etik	copyright-etatik
partitive	copyright-ik	—	—
prolative	copyright-tzat	—	—

Further reading

• “copyright”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

Finnish

Etymology

From English copyright.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkopirɑi̯t/, [ˈko̞pirɑ̝i̯t̪]
• Rhymes: -opirɑit

Noun

copyright

1. Synonym of tekijänoikeus (“copyright”)

Declension

Inflection of copyright (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative		copyright	copyrightit
genitive		copyrightin	copyrightien
partitive		copyrightia	copyrighteja
illative		copyrightiin	copyrighteihin
		singular	plural
nominative		copyright	copyrightit
accusative	nom.	copyright	copyrightit
	gen.	copyrightin
genitive		copyrightin	copyrightien
partitive		copyrightia	copyrighteja
inessive		copyrightissa	copyrighteissa
elative		copyrightista	copyrighteista
illative		copyrightiin	copyrighteihin
adessive		copyrightilla	copyrighteilla
ablative		copyrightilta	copyrighteilta
allative		copyrightille	copyrighteille
essive		copyrightina	copyrighteina
translative		copyrightiksi	copyrighteiksi
abessive		copyrightitta	copyrighteitta
instructive		—	copyrightein
comitative		See the possessive forms below.

Possessive forms of copyright (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)

first-person singular possessor singular plural nominative copyrightini copyrightini accusative nom. copyrightini copyrightini gen. copyrightini genitive copyrightini copyrightieni partitive copyrightiani copyrightejani inessive copyrightissani copyrighteissani elative copyrightistani copyrighteistani illative copyrightiini copyrighteihini adessive copyrightillani copyrighteillani ablative copyrightiltani copyrighteiltani allative copyrightilleni copyrighteilleni essive copyrightinani copyrighteinani translative copyrightikseni copyrighteikseni abessive copyrightittani copyrighteittani instructive — — comitative — copyrighteineni second-person singular possessor singular plural nominative copyrightisi copyrightisi accusative nom. copyrightisi copyrightisi gen. copyrightisi genitive copyrightisi copyrightiesi partitive copyrightiasi copyrightejasi inessive copyrightissasi copyrighteissasi elative copyrightistasi copyrighteistasi illative copyrightiisi copyrighteihisi adessive copyrightillasi copyrighteillasi ablative copyrightiltasi copyrighteiltasi allative copyrightillesi copyrighteillesi essive copyrightinasi copyrighteinasi translative copyrightiksesi copyrighteiksesi abessive copyrightittasi copyrighteittasi instructive — — comitative — copyrighteinesi first-person plural possessor singular plural nominative copyrightimme copyrightimme accusative nom. copyrightimme copyrightimme gen. copyrightimme genitive copyrightimme copyrightiemme partitive copyrightiamme copyrightejamme inessive copyrightissamme copyrighteissamme elative copyrightistamme copyrighteistamme illative copyrightiimme copyrighteihimme adessive copyrightillamme copyrighteillamme ablative copyrightiltamme copyrighteiltamme allative copyrightillemme copyrighteillemme essive copyrightinamme copyrighteinamme translative copyrightiksemme copyrighteiksemme abessive copyrightittamme copyrighteittamme instructive — — comitative — copyrighteinemme second-person plural possessor singular plural nominative copyrightinne copyrightinne accusative nom. copyrightinne copyrightinne gen. copyrightinne genitive copyrightinne copyrightienne partitive copyrightianne copyrightejanne inessive copyrightissanne copyrighteissanne elative copyrightistanne copyrighteistanne illative copyrightiinne copyrighteihinne adessive copyrightillanne copyrighteillanne ablative copyrightiltanne copyrighteiltanne allative copyrightillenne copyrighteillenne essive copyrightinanne copyrighteinanne translative copyrightiksenne copyrighteiksenne abessive copyrightittanne copyrighteittanne instructive — — comitative — copyrighteinenne third-person possessor singular plural nominative copyrightinsa copyrightinsa accusative nom. copyrightinsa copyrightinsa gen. copyrightinsa genitive copyrightinsa copyrightiensa partitive copyrightiaan copyrightiansa copyrightejaan copyrightejansa inessive copyrightissaan copyrightissansa copyrighteissaan copyrighteissansa elative copyrightistaan copyrightistansa copyrighteistaan copyrighteistansa illative copyrightiinsa copyrighteihinsa adessive copyrightillaan copyrightillansa copyrighteillaan copyrighteillansa ablative copyrightiltaan copyrightiltansa copyrighteiltaan copyrighteiltansa allative copyrightilleen copyrightillensa copyrighteilleen copyrighteillensa essive copyrightinaan copyrightinansa copyrighteinaan copyrighteinansa translative copyrightikseen copyrightiksensa copyrighteikseen copyrighteiksensa abessive copyrightittaan copyrightittansa copyrighteittaan copyrighteittansa instructive — — comitative — copyrighteineen copyrighteinensa

Further reading

• “copyright”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English copyright.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.pi.ʁajt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

copyright m (plural copyrights)

1. copyright

   Il était … une petite grenouille
   Copyright Clé International, Paris 1986.

   There Once Was… a Little Frog
   Copyright Clé International, Paris 1986.

Further reading

• “copyright”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English copyright.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ko.piˈrajt/, /ˌkɔ.piˈrajt/
• Rhymes: -ajt

Noun

copyright m

1. copyright

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English copyright

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌkɔ.piˈwaj.t͡ʃi/ [ˌkɔ.piˈwaɪ̯.t͡ʃi]

Noun

copyright m (invariable)

1. Alternative form of copirraite

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English copyright.

Noun

copyright n (uncountable)

1. copyright

Declension

Declension of copyright

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	copyright	copyrightul
genitive-dative	copyright	copyrightului
vocative	copyrightule

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English copyright.

Noun

copyright m (plural copyrights)

1. copyright

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “copyright”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10